The Queue, Basma Abdel Aziz
The Queue, Basma Abdel Aziz
3 Rating(s)
List: $15.00 | Sale: $10.50
Club: $7.50

The Queue

Author: Basma Abdel Aziz, Elisabeth Jaquette

Narrator: Mark Bramhall

Unabridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/12/2016


Synopsis

"The Queue ... has drawn comparisons to Western classics like George Orwell’s 1984 and The Trial by Franz Kafka. It represents a new wave of dystopian and surrealist fiction from Middle Eastern writers who are grappling with the chaotic aftermath and stinging disappointments of the Arab Spring." -- The New York Times

Winner of the English PEN Translation Award

In a surreal, but familiar, vision of modern day Egypt, a centralized authority known as ‘the Gate’ has risen to power in the aftermath of the ‘Disgraceful Events,’ a failed popular uprising. Citizens are required to obtain permission from the Gate in order to take care of even the most basic of their daily affairs, yet the Gate never opens, and the queue in front of it grows longer.

Citizens from all walks of life mix and wait in the sun: a revolutionary journalist, a sheikh, a poor woman concerned for her daughter’s health, and even the brother of a security officer killed in clashes with protestors. Among them is Yehia, a man who was shot during the Events and is waiting for permission from the Gate to remove a bullet that remains lodged in his pelvis. Yehia’s health steadily declines, yet at every turn, officials refuse to assist him, actively denying the very existence of the bullet.

Ultimately it is Tarek, the principled doctor tending to Yehia’s case, who must decide whether to follow protocol as he has always done, or to disobey the law and risk his career to operate on Yehia and save his life.

Written with dark, subtle humor, The Queue describes the sinister nature of authoritarianism, and illuminates the way that absolute authority manipulates information, mobilizes others in service to it, and fails to uphold the rights of even those faithful to it.

About The Author

BASMA ABDEL AZIZ is an Egyptian writer, psychiatrist, and visual artist. Early on, she earned the nickname ‘the rebel’ for her indefatigable struggle against injustice, torture, and corruption. A weekly columnist for Egypt’s al-Shorouk newspaper, she represents a fresh and necessary female voice in Arabic journalism and fiction. She is the winner of the Sawiris Cultural Award, the General Organisation for Cultural Palaces award, and the Ahmed Bahaa-Eddin Award. She lives in Cairo.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ioana on October 29, 2017

Umm.. so a chapter or so into the book, I began googling Basma Abdel Aziz to determine if she was still alive. Definitely, a residue of my being born and spending my childhood in a totalitarian country, for certainly a book like this would never have been published in the formerly communist Eastern......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on August 12, 2016

Frankly, this is one hell of a good book. [More at my reading journal if anyone's interested. I can just picture someone somewhere reading the back-cover blurb of this book where it says "The Queue is a chilling debut that evokes Orwellian dystopia, Kafkaesque surrealism,..." and wondering why he/she......more

Goodreads review by Dagio_maya on October 08, 2019

Tra Kafka ed Orwell c’è... ... Basma Abdel Aziz: scrittrice egiziana, psichiatra, artista visiva e attivista per i diritti umani, soprannominata "la ribelle". Probabilmente ne “La fila” è la donna coi capelli corti: quella che proprio non riesca stare zitta di fronte alle ingiustizie e agli atteggia......more

Goodreads review by Viv on October 01, 2016

The Queue is an interesting new take on the dystopian genre, which manages to balance hyper-reality with a sense of surreal absurdity. It is set in an unnamed authoritarian state, where citizens are at the mercy of a central authority figure called The Gate. Bureaucracy is extreme – citizens need au......more